It didn’t matter that Saturday was cold and wet; it had been a long week and she, with her five children, headed to God’s Garage for a morning filled with laughter and community.

Vrionis thought she was coming for lunch and to catch up with friends. She left with a Dodge Caravan.

“I had no idea it was going to happen,” Vrionis said. “I thought other women would get their cars first, they have smaller families.”

Vrionis was one of nine Conroe-area women that received vehicles from local nonprofit God’s Garage after spending months, sometimes years on the waiting list for a donated car inspected and repaired by garage volunteers.

“So many people have invested their time (and) their money to help people they may never meet,” said God’s Garage founder Chris Williams.

The former pastor started the nonprofit — which provides cars to single mothers, widows and military wives free of charge — out of his garage 17 years ago. He had been tinkering around with the cars of women in need at his ministry, The Crossing Church in The Woodlands, and was looking to make a more permanent change.

“It was once a month — which turns into once a week, which turned into twice a week,” Williams said. “I never thought that it would be something that I did in my free time, because I actually really don’t like working on cars.”

The fully-equipped, 3,500-square-foot garage is run entirely with donations that fund the 80 volunteer mechanics and three staff members. In 2018, God’s Garage has repaired and given away more than 130 cars to women in need from Sugar Land to Hunstville.

Saturday’s event at the facility along the western edge of Conroe was never advertised to the women on the nearly 1,400-name-long waiting list as an event where they would finally receive the vehicle that some so desperately need.

Vrionis, like her eight friends, came to God’s Garage with no pretenses — after she applied for a car and began the required budgeting classes, she held her faith strong, but knew the odds of a quick return were slim.

“When I left here that day, I was like, ‘You know what, even if I have to wait a year or two for our car, I’m just so blessed,’” Vrionis said.

The need is a strong one, Williams said. Without a car, they often find themselves in a cycle of low earning power and low-self esteem from constantly depending on others for rides.

“They find themselves stuck over and over and over without a car,” William said. “They can’t get a job.”

In an effort to expand its services to women with similar difficulties across the country, God’s Garage opened a location in Ogden, Utah earlier this year, and plans to open garages in Colorado and Oklahoma in 2019. Through partnerships with community businesses, the nonprofit is working to develop a career track for women who apply for cars.

Vrionis lost her job this week, but the surprise minivan lifted, if only momentarily, the stress of life outside the cavernous room where she found so much joy on Saturday morning.